Shy Guy, Link, and Joe Doctor

 My brother and sister-in-law were expecting a son so my brain went into gear on what Mario themed quilt to make for him.  His family receives Mario themed quilts and has already received a Bowser quilt and a Princess Peach quilt... and, I think, a Mario pillow... I think that's where that ended up... I don't remember...
For some reason Shy Guy kept screaming at me (does he talk?  I guess he does in Super Mario RPG)... and I thought, "Ooh, he looks easy. Fast... and I have the perfect scraps for the background and some leftover green minky. Sounds like a winner to me!
Also made earlier this year as a custom order was a Zelda quilt with Zelda, Link, and Shiek.  It was a lot of fun to design, especially Link.  That's a new pixel image for me (inspiration found on-line) and I would love to make him larger some day as a center piece of a quilt.

If you're interested in a custom order, contact me! :) 

Christmas Time Is Here

Well, not it is not really here at the moment... but I have yet to come up with a pattern title for this quilt and I guess that would do nicely... sounds all Charlie Brown-ish.
This quilt was designed with a friend's husband in mind.  He lost his mother two years ago after a battle with cancer.   He and his wife have three small children and to keep his mother's memory alive for them he has continued the Christmas tradition of decorating the house at Christmastime with Snoopy items.   His mother loved Peanuts, especially Snoopy, and he loved to rib her about all her Snoopy junk but he secretly loved it when she would get it out every year.   
I decided to add to his Snoopy junk by creating a lap quilt for the family to share as they gaze at the Peanuts Christmas tree and remember all the fun his mother had collecting the ornaments and decorating her tree with them. 
I picked up the cloud fabric at a garage sale and thought it was absolutely perfect for the background!   I also had fun with the binding and fussy cut the strips to make the binding match the quilt pattern.  So fun to do!
I couldn't decide if I wanted to use a cozy minky fabric for the back or a licensed Peanuts print.  I went to JoAnn's armed with coupons and decided if I didn't see a licensed print that would work then I would go with a minky.   As I scoured the Peanuts prints I saw this and it was perfect- and not on sale either so I could use a 50% coupon! Awesome!  But apparently Christmas prints were on sale for 60% off and this rang up as a Christmas print- even better!    I have some extra fabric too so I may make some bow-ties for the boys and some scrunchies for the girls... and may have enough for a little skirt too... we'll see! 
Again, due to copyright reasons I cannot sell this pattern but I do take custom orders!

Unicorn Dreams - Crib Quilt

Now that I've finished up making masks for the needy I have begun to whittle down my other project lists, one of which was the crib/lap size Unicorn Dreams quilt!   The pattern comes together very quickly and is absolutely adorable!   If you'd like to make it you can purchase the pattern here or if you would like to do a custom order contact me; I'd love to make you one!
Once I finish a dress for my daughter I'm planning to make the twin size. We'll see how long I can keep that a secret from her- probably not long at all!
Earlier this year I made a dog quilt.  Anyone who knows me will be amazed by that fact! hahaha Not a dog person... buuut, I have a friend who loves dogs and was expecting her first long-awaited child.  All these patterns came from Burlap Blossom!  Be sure to check her patterns out as she has soooo many adorable patterns!
Also finished a month or two ago was Bucky Badger!   This was the redesigned pattern and boy, was it much nicer!   He still takes a bit of time to piece together, but switching the direction the strips go on his W and his feet really shaved off some time and frustration!  Next time though I will be sure to cut the directional fabric the proper way. ~head hits desk~ Unfortunately I didn't have enough Badger print to recut those pieces and the fabric is not locally available so I just used what I had and called it good... just don't look too closely.
Because of copyright reasons I cannot offer this pattern for sale but I can do a custom order so if you're interested, let me know!

The Tardis

The Tardis received a post many moons ago, but not its own post!   My niece loves Doctor Who and for her birthday her mother asked me if I thought I could make her a Tardis quilt.   I said, "Sure!" to her and "What have I gotten myself into?" to myself!    I couldn't find a pattern I liked.   I had no experience designing a pattern (at that point).  I hate math.  Math hates me.  What on earth could possibly go wrong?

After many headaches and frustration I designed the Tardis.  It's seen a few changes here and there... I think I have made it four times or so!     I do wish I were better at operating my quilt program as I'd love to play around with  the size of the Tardis so I could easily make it smaller, but whatever, it's bigger on the inside anyway, so why does it need to be large?
If you want to sew your own that pattern is for sale here or if you want to custom order one send me an e-mail.

The lettering has been tweaked a few times.  I used to piece it together... then I appliqued it together and then stitched the "Public Call" in the center...  the words on the door are printed via my printer.  I liked to stitch a wood grain onto the Tardis...

Joe Cop

My favorite Jack of all trades!
I saw an image floating around on the internet of Joe Cool as a police man. Now, he never did appear in the strips as a police man but I can certainly see him as a police man! 
Two of my brothers are police men and I had to try turning Joe into a police man, and I did!  It was tricky, but, I think, it turned out quite well!     I was able to find some awesome handcuff material for the background; isn't it great?   I couldn't decide which I liked best, the gray or the blue so I bought each.  I think I like the gray the best as Snoopy pops better, but both are great!

The Security Blanket

How adorable is this one?  Charles Schulz sure knew what he was doing with his characters in Peanuts.  Is there not a character that we can relate with in some way, shape, or form.   Oh, Linus, such wisdom beyond your years- most of the time until a pumpkin is involved...  

 This one was so much fun to put together!  Someday I'd like to design one with Snoopy, Linus, and Security... and maybe some day that will happen.

Bucky Badger

I have a good friend who is a big Wisconsin Badger's fan.   She's been a great friend and influence in my life and I wanted to show my appreciation of her and thus this quilt was designed.   It was a tricky thing turning Bucky Badger into a pixel and pieced it together... well, I didn't want to make it again!   But I bought enough fabric to make the quilt again for another Bucky Badger fan... so I redesigned the quilt a bit.  The image itself is the same but instead of working in 1.5 strips from left to right I worked in 1.5 strips up and down for the shirt and for the feet.  This was a much, much better and more efficient and much less frustrating way to put this quilt together.    I still haven't finished the quilt as it needs to be sandwiched and quilted, but at least the top is pieced together.
If you ever see a quilt on my blog or have a pixel quilt you'd like made contact me for a custom order!

Joe Doctor

Designing Peanuts quilts is so fun, especially if it's Snoopy.  I'm not sure there's a trade the Joe Snoopy hasn't done at a some point.   Doctor (well, Surgeon in the strips), lawyer, author (he thinks), golfer, tennis player, jogger, elite skater- he's done it all and I still think his dog house is a Tardis.    That pattern might emerge some day.  I digress...
This quilt was on the back burner of my mind for some time.  My second pregnancy was a roller coaster with a very good end result.  I wanted to thank my midwife and also wanted to thank our pediatrician for the great care he's provided for our other child and thus I finally had the reason to sit down and design and make this.  (Trust me, I have more designs than I have time.  I just wish I could legally sell these Peanuts patterns, but I never hear back from the proper authorities...)
I made two of these and purchased enough fabric to make a third for my niece who is in nursing school.   After making two of these I was burned out and set the materials aside for the third... and now a year later I'm finally picking up the material again and it is all cut and waiting to be assembled! 
I also designed the image sans Woodstock, and thought about making this quilt without Woodstock, but decided it's just too cute of an element to the quilt to omit. 
What Peanuts design would you like to see?

Caticorn Glee

With my being a cat lover I couldn't stop with just a unicorn quilt.  The only thing better than a unicorn is a caticorn, right!    And look at her happy, little face! 
Once again, designed as a pixel quilt, this pattern too will come together quickly, even more quickly than the unicorn because the design is so much more simple!   This pattern is also for sale on etsy.   It features both a lap quilt pattern as well as a twin quilt pattern.  The twin quilt is in the same style as the unicorn twin quilt featuring a ribbon border. 
Of course now my creative gears are spinning and I'm wondering what other unicorn animals to design... I'm thinking a llamacorn or a pugacorn sound kind of fun... but if I keep designed then I'll never have a chance to catch up on the quilt list.   Catch up, funny stuff, that.

Unicorn Dreams

As many people around world have, I too have a unicorn lover in the house.  She has been asking and asking for a unicorn quilt and I keep telling her that she already has a quilt, she doesn't need another... and on the sly I began to design a pattern.  Unfortunately, I did not realize that she can see my monitor from the reflection off a cabinet in the room so she as seen the design and is now begging for me to make it.    Unfortunately for her, I have a list of other quilts to make first... so she still has to wait.  That being said, I did finish the pattern.   I designed it as a small lap/crib quilt as well as a twin quilt.    I've always wanted to make a ribbon border and decided it was the perfect edge to turn the quilt into ultra sweet. 
I have this pattern for sale on etsy and if you'd like to make it for your favorite unicorn lover, check it out!
The unicorn is a pixel unicorn (what else would I design) and will come together very quickly!   The ribbon border is also very simple to do (I made one trial square), despite the complex look. 

A Boy and His Dog

This quilt is quite possibly the fastest I have ever done a quilt from start to finish...  There were no hiccups in the quilt at all, which was nice!
I had three Peanuts patterns I still needed to make so I asked my FB friends which one I should do next and I may choose the popular vote.  This one won by a huuuuge landslide so I figured I should make it even though my brother tempted me with the most sincere quilt.
I found the sweet background fabric at Hobby Lobby.  I'd been ogling it for quite some time to use for the background of the quilt so I guess it was a good thing that they still carried it by the time I decided to sew the quilt.
I ended up giving this quilt to my aunt... her comment on the FB poll made me want to give it to her so once it was finished I boxed it up and mailed it to her- which caught her very, very surprised.  :)

The Great Pumpkin

This too was another pattern that was in the works for about a year.   Last fall when JoAnn's clearanced their fall prints I picked up a pumpkin fabric planning to use it for a Great Pumpkin quilt.   Fast forward a year and I still had not used the print... and then found a fun Peanuts fall print to use instead. 
Last month I finally completed the pattern and stitched away.  I still used the pumpkin print but used it for the pumpkin portion of the quilt.
I also became adventurous and decided to try a new freehand stitch- leaves and acorns.   It took me a while to get the feel of the leaves but by the end they were starting to consistently turn out well.
Isn't this the sincerest quilt you've ever seen?
I actually intended to use a lighter green for the leaves but I had some scrap green from another project and decided to be good and use up some scrap rather than purchase more fabric.  Sometimes I'm good.  Yesterday I was not.  heh.

Sleep, Baby, Sleep

As some of you may recall I made a variation of this quilt a few years ago, but with that one I did the original colors as well as made the finished strip size two inches.
Since I've done that I've been itching for a reason to do a colorized version of the quilt and decided that my brother's upcoming baby would be the perfect recipient.  Now, he and his wife are being awesome in not finding out the gender (I am being serious; I like not knowing until the baby is born) so it did make it a little interesting in deciding on whether or not to do this quilt... I mean, Kirby is a boy... but he is pink... ya know... so... whatever!   I had a cool spacey, dreamy print on had that I felt was perfect for this quilt as well as felt as the deep purple did not make the quilt have a decidedly girly feel.  Now, I could have bought the fabric in blue, but I really am trying hard to just use the fabric that I have on hand so that I don't have nearly so much in my stash.
Now I have to wait for the gifting to reveal the quilt to them... but isn't it a beaut?
The finished size is 48x58 so a tad large for a tiny baby but large enough to be used all the way through adult years- plus it is the right size for a toddler bed! Sounds like a three win situation to me!
I would really like to colorize some more from the NES Kirby, but priorities. :(
Edited: Apparently I've never posted a photo on the blog about the other Sleep quilt.  I'll have to post about that one some day.

Strawberry Shortcake

This quilt was on my bucket list for quite a while.   I had found a vintage Strawberry Shortcake print at Hobby Lobby and purchased half a yard with the intent of making a SSC quilt for a friend.
Fast forward ten months and I sat down and began to draw the quilt in a graph.   It took quite a while to get the design to look enough like SSC that she would be recognizable.   I showed my husband the first few renditions and after hearing who it was supposed to be he would reply, "If you say so."  Discouraging, that's what.
Finally, I finished the pattern and then loaded it in the Sprite Quilter program my husband wrote and learned that I needed a yard of background fabric.  I went to Hobby Lobby to purchase another half yard of the SSC fabric but alas they were out. :(   I couldn't even find the fabric online.
I ended up finding a true vintage print on eBay and used that for the background and then created a strawberry block for the back. I had juuuuuust enough fabric for that!
You can purchase the pattern here or if you would like to custom order it contact me on etsy.

A Boy Named Charlie Brown

My mother found this fabric and called me to see if I wanted it.  After hearing her description I told her, "Definitely!"   I could already see this one in my head!
I got a little crazy and decided to do a chevron border... which took about twice as long to make as good ol' Charlie.  Yeah, twice as long.  AHHH!   Maybe should have had my head examined when I thought it would look awesome.
However, it did turn out pretty cool and there is something else I must confess; the blocks were supposed to be a finished size of three inches and they ended up being a 2 and 5/8 finished size... so apparently my math needs a bit more work to get the size right.   That's what I get for trying to be conservative on the fabric usage and make the blocks the exact (ha ha) size instead of making them a bit larger than necessary and trimming them down. 
Math and I never have gotten along too well. 
I decided to be a bit modern with the back and made a chevron going across the back.  This chevron I made the intended size so I suppose I do sometimes learn from my mistakes.

Eggggs! Egggs! Exterminate!

Back in the day of the classic Doctor Who Daleks weren't too scary.   I mean, all one had to do was go up a few flights of steps and hide around the corner and one was safe.   Daleks couldn't climb stairs.    Apparently the writers realized this and the new generation of Daleks can now fly.   Look out, you're about to be exterminated!

  Growing up my mother and older brothers would talk about Doctor Who and the Daleks.   By the time I came around and was old enough to watch it it was no longer on tv- or at least not available via bunny ears.   One day we discovered the library had a few vhs tapes (I feel as though I'm dating myself a bit...) and we checked them out.    I remember giggling when I saw the first episode with a Dalek in it and wondered how on earth it could be sooooooo terrifying!  That being said, the new and improved Daleks are definitely terrifying.
  I'd already made a bed quilt for my mother but also really wanted to make her a lap quilt for when she watched movies.     I wanted to create something unique and after seeing the large amount of Doctor Who fabric that was available I decided to create a Dalek.    That meant opening paint and drawing away... and a lot of erasing... and reworking, and "WHOA!  Jump back Loretta! That is *way* too large for a lap quilt!"   Finally I arrived upon this and it turned out really well- except for the one pixel I apparently grabbed the wrong 1.5" square and didn't realize it until I had the quilt pinned and ready for free motion quilting.   I left it there.  It made it even more unique.
 This pattern is available for sale at here.   The finished size is 50x50.   The pattern is mostly 1.5 strips with quite a number 1.5x1.5 blocks.    The pattern works left to right so if there are 10 black pixels in a row that means one will use a 10.5x1.5 strip instead of using ten 1.5x1.5 squares.  One would want a sonic screwdriver for that!     The background has a few large chunks to save on time, fabric, and thread.  It also really helps the the background pattern to stand out.

The Sopwith Camel

Second of my Lil' Folks series is The Sopwith Camel.     Who didn't sit on the edge the seat waiting to read more about the World War 1 Flying Ace's adventures behind the enemies line?  Who else was saddened when The Red Baron shot the birthday cake that the Ace was so kindly trying to give him?

 This is the first quilt that I have cut and pieced in an almost twenty-four hour span.    If one had a free day one could easily piece the top in a day.    The top half takes a little while as it works with 1.5" strips but the bottom portion moves very quickly as one uses large rectangles.
The bullet holes were decided upon after I pieced the top... I felt the quilt was missing a bit of personality so bullet holes it was!  They didn't turn out quite how I was envisioning, but they still add nice charm to the quilt.
When designing the pattern I tried work Snoopy's grimace into a pixel but it just didn't look quite right so I decided I could stitch a grimace.  I'm really glad that I decided to go this route as it turned out so well!

The background fabric was purchased at JoAnn's.  Isn't it a marvelous background for this quilt?
The white, black, and green were all scraps from other projects- as was the batting!      It's so nice to be able to use up scraps- heh, well, can't say that I "used up" the entire stash.  That would be miraculous.

I'mma number one!

About a year and a half ago whilst walking through the clearance aisle at Wally World I stumbled across some Mario sheets and blankets.  I used one of the sheets for the Bowser quilt but still had the microfiber blanket.   I had something special in mind for that blanket and it took some thinking to work it out.     I wanted the quilt to tell a story from Mario Kart, but how?  There's only so much room and I had a specific size the quilt absolutely had to be.    I opened paint and got to work... and worked... and worked...  finally I came up with this pattern.    The top portion is worked with 1.5" strips and the bottom portion (Mario) is worked with 2.5" strips.   It was amazing how much more quickly the quilt went once I started working with the 2.5" strips.
For this quilt I also did a few large background chunks instead of doing strips the width of the quilt.  Doing so saves a lot of time, fabric, and thread which is all pretty important to me.
  I was pretty nervous about quilting this.  I was tempted to not use batting since the backing was already heavy but my husband talked me into doing it and I agreed it probably was best, especially since there was such a stark difference in the thickness of the top and bottom.    The blanket was very stretchy and having already worked before with snuggle bubble I was kind dreading quilting this.   I took a lot of time with the pinning and it definitely paid off as the back ended up very smooth!
I got a little creative too and stitched in some Koopa shells as well as a star... which didn't turn out quite as well... I think I got a little cocky with the success of the shell.   Mario and Lakitu were stippled and the background along the words was stitched with a racetrack... that didn't turn out quite how I envisioned it, but it turned out, I guess.
I add the words to the top left as I felt the corner was black.   I kind of wish I would have done the letters in multiple colors similar to how the main screen is but I decided to use the awesome houndstooth that I picked up for the binding.
Pardon that cute lil' girl walking on the back of the quilt.  She loves it when quilts are spread on the floor and loves to snuggle them.   In a few years she'll be big enough to hold them up for me when I take photos.  Payback!  =)
This pattern is available on Craftsy!

Joe Cool

Reading Peanuts was a staple in my life.   As a child my brothers and I owned many dozen of the Peanuts paperback books and spent hours reading and rereading them.   In the last year I began to start collecting books from the Complete Peanuts set and have been reading them.  It's pretty amazing how many of the strips I had read as a child- especially since the bulk of the strips were written before I was born.   I also have a sneaking suspicion that my sense of humor was greatly influenced by reading the strips.
 Over the past two years I've created many video game pixel quilts and it started me thinking about what else is already quite pixelated that could be turned into a quilt and Peanuts came to mind.     I sat down one night and began to mess around in my photoshop program and began to feel as though I were eight years old again and playing around in paint!   After some fiddling I figured out what I needed to do and inspiration for a new series of quilts was born.
Thus far I have finished two quilts and have the patterns written for two more.  There are so many ideas I have for Peanuts quilts that I have a feeling only a small portion of them will ever come to fruition.  Ah well.
I decided the first quilt in the series to make would be Joe Cool.   Partly for the fact that, hey, it's Joe Cool and also partly because I've been wanting to make my brother a quilt and his name is also Joe.   I recall that as a teen he had a Joe Cool shirt and he tended to wear it with some pride.   Who wouldn't?  Joe Cool is, after all, well... cool!
After creating so many large quilts recently it was pleasant to work on a lap sized quilt.  The finished size is 45x57.   For the background quilting I stitched paw prints.  I give myself a D- (just don't call me Peppermint Patty, please!) for them.  They're tricky little buggers!     Isn't that snuggle bubble just gorgeous?   Instead of working with 57" long strips I broke the background into large chunks.  Doing so saved so much time (and thread and fabric) and it also makes the Snoopy print stand out much better.  Of course though after sewing a gazillion 1.5" black and blue squares together I went, "Duh! Why did I not sew two 1.5x X strips together and then cut them to size?  It would have saved so much time!"  Ah well, I have another Peanuts pattern that switches between two colors pretty frequently so that pattern I amended to do this technique.  Live and learn, you blockhead.

Quilting- another passion

Creating cards isn't the only craft I do... pretty much if it's a craft that interests me I'll give it a whirl and some crafts become addicting and others just don't catch.
One craft that has become addicting is quilting and then I took it to another level and began to make video game quilts.
The first video game quilt I constructed was a queen sized Legend of Zelda quilt.
   It was exceedingly time consuming to make, not only with the construction but also with creating the pattern.  Thankfully since then my wonderful husband wrote me a quilting program that will take an image and give me the amount of fabric I need to purchase.   This program saves me soooo much time- and frustration!
I generally construct the video game quilts using 1 1/2 inch blocks or strips.   I really don't have the patience to make a video game quilt one block at a time so if the color in a row is the same for seven pixels then I use a 7 1/2 x 1 1/2 inch strip.
Since Zelda I've created a Sonic baby quilt, a two-sided Kirby quilt, and a Mario quilt.  
I loved making the Sonic quilt.  I think I had the top thrown together in one day! How awesome is that?  It definitely makes me want to make more baby quilts and fewer bed-sized quilts. ~laughs~
The Mario quilt is the first video game quilt that I used the program my husband wrote for me.   That program is an amazing time saver and the accuracy for the amount of yardage needed is spot on... which I guess is why people love math.   The answer is always constant... unless you're me and then the answers always vary.     The entire quilt probably took about sixty hours worth of work.    I enjoyed it, but I was very happy to have the last block finished.   Because of the amount of time it took to assemble the blocks I kept the quilting very simply.  For the characters I sewed up and down to help give the characters a more pixelated look.  I also did this as it helps distract from the fact that I assemble the squares with strips and not 1 1/2 blocks.    For the background I did a simple stipple.    

Geekery doesn't stop with video game quilts.  I've also designed a Tardis quilt.    My sister-in-law asked my if I thought I could make a Tardis quilt for her daughter's sixteenth birthday.   I said yes and then went, "Wow.  This just might have been the dumbest thing I agreed to.   I have to create a pattern for this... this could be bad."
I did a lot of googling and found a few Tardis quilts that I like different aspects of and then incorporated those aspects into my pattern.  
It actually ended up not being as difficult as I thought it would be and I've made two Tardis quilts since then!